


I Saw the World go Up in Flames; I Will Burn it All Down Before I See it Happen Again

by Antonier



Category: X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Antisemitism, Canon Character of Color, Canon Jewish Character, Gen, Magnetfam, Platonic Relationships, The Holocaust
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2020-10-13
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:22:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26982109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Antonier/pseuds/Antonier
Summary: My name is Max Eisenhardt. I’ve been a Sonderkommando at Auschwitz for two years. I’ve watched thousands of men, women and children walk to their deaths. I pulled their bodies from the gas chambers. I dug out their teeth so the Germans could take their gold. And I carried their bodies to the ovens, where I learned how to combine a child’s body with an adult to make them burn better. I saw my fellow workers buried alive under an avalanche of rotting corpses. I saw thousands of people burning in giant outdoor pits. I have seen at least a quarter million dead human beings with my own eyes... And I couldn’t save a single one... Anymore than they could save me. To everyone who finds this, I’m sorry. Because I’m dead. And now it’s up to you. Tell everyone who will listen. Tell everyone who won’t. Please. Don’t ever let this happen again.Alternatively Titled: Magneto is Jewish; Die Mad.
Relationships: Erik Lehnsherr & Kitty Pryde, Erik Lehnsherr & Pietro Maximoff, Erik Lehnsherr & Wanda Maximoff, Erik Lehnsherr/Charles Xavier, Erik Lehnsherr/Magda (X-Men), Lorna Dane & Erik Lehnsherr, Pietro Maximoff & Wanda Maximoff
Comments: 4
Kudos: 30





	I Saw the World go Up in Flames; I Will Burn it All Down Before I See it Happen Again

**Author's Note:**

> TW: The Holocaust is a big thing in this fanfiction.
> 
> The Description is a quote from X-Men: The Magneto Testament. It's the story of Max's life during the Holocaust. Please read it. It's so good.

_My name is Max Eisenhardt. I’ve been a Sonderkommando at Auschwitz for two years. I’ve watched thousands of men, women and children walk to their deaths. I pulled their bodies from the gas chambers. I dug out their teeth so the Germans could take their gold. And I carried their bodies to the ovens, where I learned how to combine a child’s body with an adult to make them burn better. I saw my fellow workers buried alive under an avalanche of rotting corpses. I saw thousands of people burning in giant outdoor pits. I have seen at least a quarter million dead human beings with my own eyes... And I couldn’t save a single one... Anymore than they could save me. To everyone who finds this, I’m sorry. Because I’m dead. And now it’s up to you. Tell everyone who will listen. Tell everyone who won’t. Please. Don’t ever let this happen again._

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Max Eisenhardt is none years old. His parents laugh with joy. Max Eisenhardt is none years old. His mother holds him to her breast. Max Eisenhardt is none years old. He is warm. He is loved.

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Pietro Maximoff is none years old. He and his sister cling to each other for warmth. There’s snow outside. Their mother leaves them with their new family. Their mother runs. Their mother isn’t faster than the cold. He sleeps on. He remembers nothing.

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Max Eisenhardt is 4 years old. Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany. Max Eisenhardt is 4 years old. His father says they’ve given Hitler no reason to fear them. Max Eisenhardt is 4 years old. His father says they will be safe. He believes him.

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Lorna Dane is 4 years old. Her parents are fighting. She doesn’t like the noise. She starts to cry. They scream louder. She’s scared. She wants it to stop. Something snaps. It’s quiet after that. She remembers nothing.

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Max Eisenhardt is 13 years old. His father dies saving him. Max Eisenhardt is 13 years old. The ink on his arm is a death sentence. Max Eisenhardt is 13 years old. His father died for nothing. Every time he closes his eyes, he joins him.

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Kitty Pryde is 13 years old. It’s Christmas in the mansion, and the star around her neck feels like an anchor. Professor Xavier silences the room with a thought, and tells them that peace will always triumph against hatred. Later, she lights the candles of her menorah. She had forgotten to do it for the second and third nights, and she tries to make it up. She sings the words of her prayer, but her voice trips and stumbles, and she realizes she never learned them. The sounds they make have no meaning, so she hums them instead. She watches the candles burn down to the bone.

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Max Eisenhardt is 15 years old. Crematorium V burns behind him. Max Eisenhardt is 15 years old. 4,000 Jews are murdered when he escaped. Max Eisenhardt is 15 years old. One million Jews were murdered when he was not. He leaves his name in the snow.

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Bobby Drake is 15 years old. It’s Easter in the mansion, and he only realizes later that Passover was days ago. Professor Xavier tells them that goodness will always rise again. His parents did not invite him home, and his hands bleed by the time he’s finished washing them. He excuses himself from dinner, feigning sickness. He can’t remember what he’s supposed to do, but it isn’t this.

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Max Eisenhardt is 18 years old. He marries the woman he loves. Max Eisenhardt is 18 years old. They whisper promises to each other, and they mean them. Max Eisenhardt is 18 years old. He is happy. His future stretches before him, infinite.

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Pietro Maximoff is 18 years old. His world burns around him. The mob is made of ordinary men, and they have ordinary weapons. Pitchforks and pickaxes tear into flesh all the same. His mother’s hair catches fire. The rest of her follows. The mob surrounds his sister. Everything from her dress, to her blood, to her eyes, to the flames, is scarlet. Time slows. He grabs her and runs. Time never goes back.

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Max Eisenhardt is 19 years old. His daughter is born. Erik Lensherr is 19 years old. He and Magda spill tears on her wrinkled face. Erik Lensherr is 19 years old. He remembers how his sister looked when she died. His daughter’s name is Anya.

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Wanda Maximoff is 19 years old. She is Bad Luck. Wherever she goes, there are floods and famines and fires. It would be smarter, she says, to leave her behind. Her brother takes her everywhere instead. She doesn’t remember the night her parents died, but her dreams are full of smoke and screams. He tells her it wasn’t her fault. It was just Bad Luck.

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Erik Lensherr is 24 years old. His daughter burns as she falls out of the window. Erik Lensherr is 24 years old. His wife calls him a monster. Erik Lensherr is 24 years old. No, he thinks. I killed the monsters.

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Lorna Dane is 24 years old. Her father is a monster, and so is she. Her reflection laughs at her in the mirror, and she breaks it in half. 16 million mutants died in Geneosha. She considers pitching the earth out of orbit and into the sun. She should have burned with them.

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Erik Lensherr is 31 years old. The broken magnetic fields call to him like a beacon. Erik Lensherr is 31 years old. He has a daughter. Erik Lensherr is 31 years old. He should stay. He runs.

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Wanda Maximoff is 31 years old. She has two children. Beautiful twin boys that laugh and smile and cry in her arms. She has no children. She never did. She tells them stories. No one listens. Everyone around her dies. She was the one who killed them. Only her brother stays. Her brother, her father and her children.

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Erik Lensherr is 32 years old. He is not alone. Erik Lensherr is 32 years old. There is a man who can rewrite minds. Erik Lensherr is 32 years old. They speak of opening a school. The future is bright once more.

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Pietro is Maximoff is 32 years old. He is the prince of the world. He is the perfect son. The perfect brother. None of it is real. There’s time, before his father kills him, to run. He does nothing. The world burns. He remembers nothing.

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Erik Lensherr is 34 years old. Charles preaches peace. Erik Lensherr is 34 years old. His family was peaceful. Erik Lensherr is 34 years old. They killed them anyway. He doesn’t look back.

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Wanda Maximoff is 34 years old. It’s Rosh Hashanah, and she throws grain to the ducks and tries to assign a fault to every handful. She runs out of grain. Children run around the park in their formalwear, and parents argue passionately. She is alone. The fabric of reality changes, and her grain tin once more is full. The park is gone, replaced by a field in Central Europe. She remembers how it feels to burn. She throws her sins to the grass.

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Magneto is 39 years old. He saves two mutants from a mob. Magneto is 39 years old. The sister looks just like Magda. Magneto is 39 years old. He should run. He stays.


End file.
